owl sees all

Thanks for kind words Rats. Long way to go to sort them out. Think by the time it's all sorted there will be best part of a million baht down the drain. Mildred didn't go to school yesterday. So gonna get on with my PP stuff today. And get the pack sent off this week to Key Services.

Indeed! 72 runs to win - 4 wickets and 30 overs left. Still Oz favourites but less so as it continues.

Yep! June was decent enough for rain. Not nearly enough from my stand-point. In years between 2009 and 2018 the ponds would have been virtually full by now. Each pond has an overflow pipe 'cause of the ponds overfilling. Wishful thinking in recent years. Gonna fill the water bowls in the farm loo today. Need Mildred to help me with this. Was gonna do it yesterday, but she didn't go to the farm 'cause she was upset with her mum.

Owl Log 02-07-2023 - Sunday afternoon Such a big deal over a red stick. On Wednesday Mildred had to do a walk with most of the school (it turned out) with the red stick. So on Tuesday evening she told me not to forget to take the stick the next morning. Not my stick, and she knows that if she ells me, everything will be fine. The next morning I walked her to the bus as usual. Red stick in hand. The driver said to but the stick in the back with some others. About 11ish the call came in. "Daddy get red stick from the back of bus and bring to the school gate at one o'clock." So off we went. Got to Ban Dung bus park and our bus had gone back to the village. Where we had just came from. I had said to Mrs Owl to call the driver; but she don't want to listen or talk these days. So off I went to the shop to get another red stick. Just about got to the rear gate for meet-up time. Mildred arrived and presented me with a little gift. How lovely! That will be useful. Friend joined her. Without her stick! I have since been informed that the proper name for the stick; is 'walking sick'. Learn something new every day in LOS. And the gift. Sits proudly in Mildred's art corner. Just waiting for those pens and pencils. Old 'Pringle' tube put to good use. After meeting Mildred at the school, spent to next hour getting my passport stuff together. Went to the local photo-shop, got me pics taken, and processed. Also downloaded the ''''OS Form 010''''. Got two copies just in case. Bought a black-ink pen specially for the filling-in. Then it was time for Mildred to be picked up at 15-30. Parked up at the terminus and waited for her. Fantastic euca trees giving shade to some of the buses. When the kids come out of school they are hungry, thirsty, and just can't wait to spend what's left of their daily allowance dosh on drinks and grub. Plenty of choice for them. Then it was off the the vegetable market soi. Parked up in my usual spot. And told Mildred to pay the 10 baht toll on her way out. For the eagle eyed out there. You will notice Mildred's different clobber to earlier. Popped into Big C to pay the leccy bill. Bought her a nice T-shirt on the way out. The Mrs and Mildred were waiting in the pick-up for me. So no dilly-dally. What did I see as I drove out of Big C? Just the most fantastic sky. Now Mrs Owl don't like me taking pics; especially of clouds or trees or old cars; or anything really. Returning from the farm at dusk, there are often some nice skies to be seen. On the way to the farm in the week, I stopped to pick up a plastic bag that had blown into the side. Good job I did, cause I saw something special. I was in that part of the farm a week ago. Those termites - or whatever they are - work so quick. I know the Ozzies eat them though. vid termite house.mp4 As far as I know, we have four trees breaking the 50cm mark. Me and Milly checking on growth. Pulled the bark off to get an accurate measurement. And another. The eucas have been in the ground three years. Those lights outside were giving problems again. The right one went out a few days ago, and the other on Friday evening. So a little job for me on Saturday morning. Must get some braces. A bit of mastic. A plastic bag, and a couple of cable ties. All sorted. The other side just needed the bulb replacing. Fortunately I'd bought a few at the 20 baht shop a while back. What with the lights. The dogs. And the movement detectors at the back. Don't expect robbers any time soon. Except those from within that is. Don't know how we managed before. As soon as I take the pick-up outside, Robert is in there. Oscar is not keen on either the inside or in the back. Mildred wanted them to go in the pick-up, but the Mrs said to let them follow the bikes. I agreed with Mrs Owl; but didn't say anything. A bit of a stand-off ensued. Anyway; the Mrs got her way and the dogs followed the Mrs and Mildred didn't go. There are eight ponds at the farm. Plenty of water for a bit of lap-swimming. But no! I showed Mildred the pics when we got back. Not best pleased was she. '''Why you let them go into my little pond?''' Robert and Oscar had a run about with the dogs from the other farm - after an initial bit of growling - and then it was time to go back. Grass needs cutting. I think it was Tuesday, when Mildred last fed the fish. Usually me. vid feed fish.mp4 That Oscar is a strange one. Built him a nice house but he prefers to sit behind it. Ever watching to see who he can bark at as they pass by minding their own business. Came over really dark at about12ish. Thought we were in for a drop. Skies have darkened even more and some thunder has arrived. But so far just noise and now the wind's got up. Rain!!! Where are you? Last month was nothing special. Hope the next three months improve. That lovely dog 'Coffee' has gone. Evidently he hurt a chicken. Me and Mildred are sad. Gonna fill the PP form in on Monday and get it sent off to 'Key Services' early this week. What an absolute pain. It was so,,,,, so easy last time. Must stop moaning about it. Only once in ten years. Me and the Mrs not talking much. I'll respond if she says anything to me. Still not gave her any dosh to cover the debt payments. That in effect are my payments. Been working on a plan to get Mildred's name on the farm deeds. We have four, and two are in hock. Get the PP stuff sent off and take stock. Still in shock to be honest. But have to face it soon. Fist time for a couple of years I actually took an interest in the cricket. Second test is at Lords (Nth/west London). Going on at the mo. Last day today. Lived just up the road from the ground in Cricklewood many moons ago, and had a shop in Wembley. The Ozzies look to be firm favourites to take this one, as they did in Leeds. Swimming starts later this month, and the Tennis at Wimbledon too. But my enthusiasm for it all has, if not waned, then certainly diminiished. Or should that be the other way round. Footy next month. Hope I've stopped feeling sorry for myself by then. Still doing coding for the web-sites. But still no interest from the Sth Korean animation team that were so interested pre-covid. Think they might have disbanded. Started a programme called "Toilet Yoga". I'm full of hope that it will help many farang here in Thailand. Anywhere in the world really. Will open a new thread on AN, and explain all. Ditched the urine stuff, after Amandha Volmer didn't reply to my email. Keeping up with my diet and a bit of fasting though. Daily food intake. Morning - two cups of tea with a few ounces of cheese. Mid-morning - three boiled eggs or a fish. Lunch - dates or/and figs. Rest of day - dried cranberries. Evening (before 7) apple or mango. or cabbage. Along with lots of water and reishi wine. . Rain has started. Full of hope for mankind. Leccy just gone off. Humanity is doomed. Worth reminding ourselves, that although the early bird catches the worm, it's the second mouse that gets the cheese, and gets to bury 'speedy'.. Except if they are in New Zealand. Where they are all doomed. Along with humanity. Leccy back on after the storm. There is some hope after all. Only one thing left to say; love ya all, and take care out there .

Interesting. Don't want to make any dosh out of Mildred's art. Just want her to gradually hone her skills. Could help her immensely in the not too distant future. If there was an 'art school' anywhere near, I'd try to get her in there. It would have to be a daily trip as being without Mildred at home would be unacceptable. But not so. And now, with the big money revelations, I'm sure my wishes would be squashed out of spite to me.

Back in the day, in England. The first adds on TV, that I remember, were housewifee stuff. Washing powder, soaps and toiletries. Think that's where ''soap-opera'' came from.

Damage Control. That just about sums up what I'm thinking. Often read posts on AN about the daft farang, that had his brains in his pants and got ripped off. You think; 'serves him right for being so stupid.' After nearly 15 years of sometimes volatile marriage; could I be excused for being stupid and not seeing the tell-tale signs? TBH, there were not many. The odd letter soon disappeared; that I was told was sent to next door, and we got it by mistake. A few thousand baht in her hand-bag one day; and skint the next. I'm still in shock TBH. Although it's a decent lump of money, the 'trust' part hurts far more. Can't ever be the same after this. Must ensure Mildred gets her dues. Or as much as possible. I'll work quietly on that.

Thanks HP. Kind words. Thanks. I'll look after her.

Mildred knows all about it. But that's not something I want her to carry about with her. Mum and dad have to sort it. Don't know how at the mo though. At the back - at the front - of my mind is getting Mildred's name on the deeds to the two big farms. They , I'm informed, have not been hocked. Yet!!

Plenty of rain. But not so hard. I'll take as much as the rain-goddess up there can offer.

Well Andy! We all think these catastrophes happen to other, careless and naive farangs here. Stupid even. But perhaps you are right about being easy-going. Never a one to buy anything for myself. Maybe a hammer or a saw. More recently I bought a new pair of sandals, cause Robert chewed up my old ones. Now I regret that as they are not very comfortable. Waste of 50 baht really. What makes it worse - well not really - is that life was comfortable. Always a bit of dosh left over every month for something or other. Remorse!!!!!!!?????? Not yet! Perhaps soon!

The Mrs has come up with a solution. Hock the big farm to the bank. Get 500k. Pay off the debts, and next year, when we do the first euca tree cut, we can pay off a good part of the new debt.

Years ago when I first arrived in the village, Nan (Mrs Owl's daughter) had a good friend named Nun. She was a bit on the plump side. I can't recall the origins of the conversation, but it got jokingly round to sexual preferences. Nan said; 'Nun not care girl or boy, just cares food."

So he hasn't discovered Thai girls yet then Andy.

If ya looking for a wife. Get a guide!

TBH Andy. You either have a knack for it or ya don't. I certainly don't. I had a bit of a talent for engineering and technical drawing. But art?! No way. This drawing was almost doodolin while she was chatting to her friend on the telephone. Just a coupe of minutes scribbling!!

Indeed!! Just the fishy section. video_25621206_140246.mp4

Wonderful encouragement Andy. Thank you. As far as the loans go! Getting the truth is like trying to extract blood from a stone. It is only when she gets found out (factually cornered), that a drop more is revealed. I'm thinking that I have to ensure my own - and Mildred's - destiny. Just can't leave it to anyone else. Call me stupid. Call me naive. But that's life. Have to cut my cloth. Have to rethink what is left of it. I went back to England in 2015. Before I went - for the previous two years or so - I was getting Mildred to draw. I put some of her very imaginative work on the wall. She would have been just 6/7 then. I could see a little something back then. Unfortunately all the work from way back then was binned while I was away. Give your step lad every encouragement Andy. Get him a web-site and put it up there. Not expensive; about 60 squids a year. I would help him get started with the HTML coding.

Far too big an area to cover in just 4 weeks. Basically it come down to what you are interested in. There are the well known commercial places like snake farm or croc pits. There are some wonderful Buddhas and Buddha related stuff that you would be directed to. But there are dozens of places that are not on the beaten trail. Between my village and Udon City, there is a horse breeding centre, a koi-carp farm, a silk-village and many other places of interest. Close by, in the other direction there is Kham Cha nod, a film set (open to the public) and buffalo riding. In the Nong Khai area there are canoe trips down the Mekong, hang gliding and fantastic markets to visit. Like fishing? Like animals? Like temples? Like strange rituals? Love nature? 12 months would not do this wonderful part of the world justice.

Owl Log - 25-06-2023 - Sunday afternoon Very lightweight Owl Log this week. Last went to Ban Dung on Monday gone. Not been to the farm for 5/6 days. TBH I haven't got any enthusiasm for any of it; with a few exceptions. Mildred, the cats and dogs. In Bang Dung, in a soi leading to the daily market, I parked up and waited for The Mrs and Mildred to return from their shopping. Mildred had a small problem at school with her ID card. We had to go to the Government office for her to get a new one. That done we went to the market. What caught my eye was a young lady on a tri leccy bike. She was obviously helping out with the moving of market goodies. Lifted my heart to see. And she was off with the cucumbers and chilies. On the way back from the farm in the week. I couldn't resist stopping and taking a couple of pics of the beautiful countryside at sun-down. And from the other side of the road. Little did I khow what was waiting for me. At the village Sang has removed his little Buddha house thingy. It is no more. Asked him what happened. Did he drive into it and cause damage? He mumbled something in sort of Englishee that couldn't understand so I left it there. Probably gonna replace little Buddha with a 10 metre high owl hide. The Mrs and me had a tiff. She casually told me that she had borrowed 100,000 baht off the big mango lady and needed my help to pay the interest. We had a nut cut last week end with different people. They pay any dosh due straight into ya bank. My bank. Not a great cut; just over 4k baht. So as we normally do, I sent her 50%. She complained that she needed more to cover her outgoings. But things seemed fishy to me. The big mango lady was just 40 metres away, and these sorts of loans are normally cash. So my questioning of the situation led to a row. A little row. The dust settled and I sorted out some of Mildred's paintings. Put a board up and stuck on 6. Also three on the window wall. That I don't now like and will take them down as soon as I get more board. Fist job in, doing it this way is to cut plastic sheet out the same size as the painting. Then cover the face in industrial 'cling-film'. Put taunt and sick the film on the back with 'selo-tape'. That done, it is then a job of setting the pic into position using 'double-sided' tape. The idea is that no sticky or tape actually touches the paintings. View from my spot. Absolutely beautiful. I especially like 'Greeny' (bottom right). Was that an attempt at a selfie? Artist's licence! 9 on the wall. 70 to go. I stood on the settee to do the biz. Put my foot through the corner section. Another job to sort out. But it's the corner section so 'Heath Robinson' is called for. The bank account that I sent the 2k to came up as a Thai name. I asked the Mrs about it. It turned out that it was her maiden name of 30+ years ago. And she had both an 'App' on her phone and a debit card. This was all new to me. Getting truth here is like getting Champagne out of a brown ale bottle. I was not best pleased. Now we had a debt of 100k baht at 5% interest that I didn't know about, and the new bank account. I'd only - in March - finished up paying for the pick-up loan for over 100k.. I pressed further. Turned out that two of the farms were in hock. Her gold was in hock. And Nan hadn't sent any dosh for a year. Nan!!!!! The wayward daughter. I am informed that Mrs Owl got this money to give to her for various reasons. One was that she could win big money on 'Internet Casino'. Strange that she should lose money playing on internet games. Everyone else wins!!?? A medium size row ensued. So in what was a traumatic week; I was not feeling too good. Spent Thursday and Friday basically feeling sorry for myself, with regular trips to the loo, and I still didn't have the full story. But then!! The truth??? The Mrs has borrowed over 600k baht in the last two years. I had already sorted 106k baht. So only 500k - plus interest - to go. A monumental row. Farm for sale. Must go quick (hot sale). Going cheap. Right at the present I seem to be in a numb, can't be bothered mode. Trying to look at it all in a realistic way. My aim is to get Mildred as much as I can. See how I feel later in the week. Only one thing left to say; bye y'all. ps. Mrs Owl's birthday yesterday. Mildred had picked out a very nice hand bag the week before last. We went 50/50. After my prompting. Mildred handed it to her mum at 7 last night. Been in touch with Key for my PP renewal. Details next week.

I dumped KrungThai because they went all mobile. Got hooked up with Kazikorn internet banking; with a struggle. This is not good news about SCB. How long before Kazikorn follow. All getting ready for the cashless era.

I prefer the blue one. Is there a choice? Just got started thinking about my PP renewal. Is it not possible to send the passport to the UK and a trusted do it for ya?

Thanks for the encouragement HP. I was only looking at you this morning. Sorry about the missing pics. They are pond 6: Didn't go to the farm today. Mrs Owl and Mildred did; on their bikes.

Had trouble with the editor today. What with adds sprawling across my workspace and editor playing up; not an easy post. No! Not been on the weed drink; yet!

Owl Log - 18-06-2023 - Sunday afternoon Plenty of rain last night and early this morning. Hope it was enough to fill the rice field, which will then overflow into ponds one and two. From there, water can flow through 4inchers into other ponds. They need that, as rainfall on its own nowhere near enough to fill them. I'll see later today. Ponds 6 and 7 were dry last month. Now!! But the shape of an empty pond means that it gradually fills slower as water goes up. But not complaining. Pond 6. Pond 6 again Pond 7 Mildred wants to put catfish in these two. I'm not so sure. Without rain for 4/5 months, ponds 6 and 7 dry up so easily,. Don't look as though we are getting any water from the deep water community well. This month's rain has turned everything beautifully green. Went also to see progress on the temple over the pond. Building construction seems to be finished. Painting underway. Time to go back across the bridge. The beginning. Saw a lovely dog in Ban Dung. Mrs went into the shop for some dog eye-drops. Very cute. The lady said it was a French Pug. Looked more like a Colorado Terrier to me. But what do I know? Perfectly normal. Dog eats dog food, and chickens eat their food. Role reversal. Curly Wurly on his way over. vid dog and chickens.mp4 Had a decent cheese delivery in the week. 2 kilo for just under 800 baht on Lazada. A really handy poly container too. Not bad at all. A bit mild. But!! Cheese and Thailand don't mix so good. Also got me dates and cranberries. They turned up last night at 19-20. The Mrs is paranoid. Not only have we two big dogs, now we have intruder detectors at the back of the house. But do they work? Put one at the front so I could test it. They do work. Range of about one metre. That's sorted then. No need for a safe now; to keep all my gold and gems in. Beautiful sky as I returned from the farm yesterday. The buffs are on their way down the soi. A farm near us cut their eucas. They didn't want them to grow again. The white stuff is hard salt. Stops growth; allegedly. Our eucas are 3 years old this month. Every three months I take pics from the same spot. That spot is the far corner of farm one. About 300 metres (diagonally) from the farm house. To north. Look east. Looking north-east, towards the farm house. The trees are mostly between 2 and 4 inches across. That's averaging out at about 7cm or so. Farm 4 has some crackers. I'll post some pics next week. Back to Big C on Friday. The cannabis drink section is growing. We bought a few different bottles. I'm careful when I drink any. Don't want to be doing anything important - like last week - when I swig away. Bought everything we needed to put Mildred's painting and drawings on the wall. No sooner did we put the first 4 up and our minds were changed about presentation. Decided to put them onto big boards. Will get to it as soon as the Owl Log is posted. Champs Man City go to Burnley first match. Chelsea host Pool. Newcomers Luton have a real tough one at Seagulls down the coast. Anyone watch the darts international between Poland and Lithuania? What a match!!!!! Tennis man Novak Djokovic triumphs in France. Can't get excited over F1 and cricket like I used to. Glad I fixed to roof on the rice store. Rain quite hard on Friday afternoon. We have new people cutting the nuts for us. They did farm 3 yesterday and we finished up with over 4k baht. They gonna do farm 2 today. World news; Boris and Donald sick as pigs. Nigel Farage (Brexit man) wants to team up with Boris to form a new 'Ensure Brexit is Done' party. Ukraine and Russia still fighting. Still doubt about Move Forward Party in Thai parliament Only one thing left to say; thank you and Bye for now.